Author Archives: Whitehall1965

Photoshop’s Sky Replacement Tool

Leave a Reply

Adobe’s Photoshop software continues to evolve with more additions being added all the time. One recent new feature is Sky Replacement. Some sample skies are included to get you started. You can, of course, add your own and use them which is a great asset if you are “creating” new images and uploading them to library websites. At least then the complete copyright rests with me as the photographer and so I do not need to worry unduly on this score.

I have played around with it using examples of aircraft images shot during a visit I paid to Turweston airfield in June 2021. Here is one of my reworked images.

DHC1 Chipmunk, Turweston Airfield, Buckinghamshire, England

2021 Posts

Leave a Reply

I realise that I have been remiss and have not posted anything for a couple of months. We are now into March so hopefully spring is around the corner. We have had a relatively mild winter with very little snow compared with other parts of the country. Let’s hope that is all we are going to get.

  • Trees in a field in the north Oxfordshire village of Hook Norton following a snowfall the previous day. Image taken into the winter sun.
  • View of the parish chruch of St Peter in the north Oxfordshire village of Hook Norton following a snowfall the previous day

Here are a couple of photos from the modest snowfall we have had.

Oxford in Lockdown

Leave a Reply

In late October I paid a visit to Oxford, my first since last year. Despite it being half term the city was not really that busy. Tourist numbers were much less than usual and I was able to photograph landmarks without waiting for people to move out of shot. Here is a selection of images from my outing.

Radcliffe Camera, Radcliffe Square, Oxford part of the university
Oriel College, one of the university colleges in the city of Oxford showing the front of the building with the statue of Cecil Rhodes above the main entrance
A view of the High Street, Oxford with the University Church of St Mary in the distance
Magdalen Tower, Magdalen College on High Street, Oxford
Punts on River Cherwell tied up for the winter by Magdalen Bridge, Oxford
Deadman’s Walk just outside the old city wall of Oxford was the route taken by funeral processions for Jewish members of the community towards the Jewish burial grounds which at that time were outside the city walls. The route overlooks the playing fields of Christ Church School.
Postmaster’s Hall, Merton Street, Oxford
View of the clock which stands in the quad of the Examination Schools, Oxford as viewed from Merton Street, Oxford
M Feller & Daughter, a butcher’s shop in the historic covered market in Oxford
Architectural details from the roof of the Oxford Martin School on the corner of Catte Street and Holywell Street, Oxford
A lamppost stands on the pavement on New College Lane, Oxford with the tower of New College Chapel in the background.

Nikon Z6 – First Impressions

Leave a Reply
Garden visitor – Nikon Z6 Nikon 24-200mm f4-f6.3 Z lens @ 200mm
1600ISO 1/320 f6.3
Parasol mushroom – Nikon Z6 Nikon 24-200mm f4-f6.3 lens @ 110mm
6400ISO 1/60 f8

I recently treated myself to a mirrorless SLR. Having used Nikons for as long as I can remember I went for a Z6, I couldn’t justify the cost of a Z7, and purchased the 24-200mm lens rather than the “kit” one usually offered with it.

So far I am extremely impressed with the quality of the images even when I have pushed the “film speed” ISO. In the past with my D800 I tended to shoot at as low an ISO as possible – 100ISO in order to achieve the quality I was used to when I shot slides in my pre digital days.

I thought I would experiment with a higher ISO and these are two of the results.

New articles

Leave a Reply

I enjoy writing articles about items I have researched. Most of them are linked to my family history research. A recent one about William McGill, born William Nelson, can be found under the Genealogy section on this site.

One of the picture libraries I submitted images to suggested I write about some of the subjects I had photographed. They say that if you can produce words and pictures then you have a greater chance of making sales. I wrote several articles and submitted them to the library but they never saw the light of day. I did submit them independently to magazines with better success and two such articles can be found under the Articles – Fact section. They are Child Farm Workers and Window Tax. Admittedly they were written a number of years ago and hopefully my style has improved in recent years.

Walks around Hooky – Map

Leave a Reply

Work on the revised walks booklet is progressing and we hope to get it printed in August. Colour maps will be a feature. Here is a map showing all eight routes. All of them start at St Peter’s Church.

The eight walks around the village which will be featured in the booklet.